Your Guide to Everything Shark Week – The Worst Week To Be a Seal

It’s here! We wait all year – with baited breath – for these six days. A week of spine-tingling thrills, razor-sharp videography, and snarky commentary. It’s Shark Week on Discovery!

When the starting gong sounded at 9 pm, Sunday, August 4, Discovery may not have been prepared for the world’s excitement. 2013 viewers broke the 26-year record for the show, with over 4.8 million viewers tuning in for Night 1. The new late night talk show featuring @BobTheShark did better than most expected, and Discovery is on the path to setting new highs for Shark Week enthusiasts this year.

It’s a Bad Week to be a Seal

Shark Week kicked off on Sunday, August 4 with a “Mermaids”-esque mockumentary about Megalodon, the mythical shark monster. The fictitious, fun-loving video pulled more eyeballs than Justin Bieber or the NFL Hall of Fame.

Monday, August 5 features “Return of Jaws” and “Voodoo Sharks.” The first is the new robotic Shark Cam’s footage of the waters off Cape Cod, made famous in “Jaws” as the home of Great Whites. The second feature explores Louisiana Bull Sharks’ abilities to live in both salt and fresh water as the species learns to hunt further and further inland along the waterways.

Tuesday, August 6 gets a bit more gruesome. Discovery’s “I Escaped Jaws” looks at real shark attack footage and talks with the survivors of these fearsome incidents. “Spawn of Jaws,” on the other hand, follows scientists who are tracking Great Whites in hopes of finding their hidden breeding grounds and protecting the rare species.

Wednesday, August 7 lines up a sharky feast for viewers: “Top 10 Sharkdown” ranks the toothy beasts in a who’s who of sharks. And in “Great White Serial Killer,” natural history producer Jeff Kurr tries to link two fatal California attacks to the same shark.

Thursday, August 8 premieres “Sharkpocalypse,” a study that investigates why shark attack numbers grow in the years that shark populations are lower. And don’t miss “Alien Sharks of the Deep,” as scientists reveal scary and bizarre sharks never before seen, including the giant Megamouth shark and the Goblin shark.

Friday, August 9 brings Discovery’s Shark Week to a thrilling close with “Great White Gauntlet” – ride along with abalone divers as they brave the most dangerous waters on Earth (the Great White’s feeding grounds) in search of priceless sea snails.

And if that’s not sharky enough for you this week, check out Discovery Plus: bonus videos and interactive material that’s synced with your TV while you watch Shark Week live. And if you visit Discovery’s Shark Week page, you can load up on interactive shark dives, more Shark Cam footage, games, and videos.

Shark Week may be a bad week to be a seal, but it’s a pretty darn good week to be a human.